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מקבץ נדחי עמו ישראל

Mekabeitz nidchei amo Yisrael

How was Avraham Avinu able to unite an entire world of committed pagans to accept the monotheistic belief? A world filled with idol worshippers, each devoted to a form of sheker, falsehood, left their idols and joined the ranks of believers. How did this occur? He showed them the truth. Someone who is living the life of a lie will eschew the lie as soon as the truth glares at him. Avraham taught the world the meaning of emes, truth. When they saw the truth, they realized the falsehood to which they had been adhering. Our Patriarch could have easily…

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ואם זבח שלמים קרבנו

And if he will slaughter a peace-offering. (3:1)

Targum Onkeles defines the word zevach as “a holy slaughtering.” Indeed, the essence of a Korban Shelamim, Peace-offering, is fundamentally different from that of other korbanos. The average korban serves as a medium to serve Hashem. As part of this objective, the animal must be slaughtered, but the slaughtering is not the primary act of hakravah, offering. Unlike other korbanos, the act of shechitah, slaughtering, within the context of a shelamim, has greater significance. A Korban Shelamim is brought by a person who wants to eat mundane food. He wants elevated, consecrated food. When one partakes of a Korban Shelamim,…

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וכל קרבן מנחתך במלח תמלח

You shall salt your every meal-offering with salt. (2:13)

You shall salt your every meal-offering with salt. (2:13) The Bris Melach, Covenant of Salt, which Hashem made with the earthly waters after He created a division between the waters above and the waters below, is the reason that salt is included in the Temple service. In his Elef HaMagen, Horav Eliezer Papo, zl, author of the Pele Yoeitz, writes that the words melach/timlach have the same letters as mechal/timchol, forgiveness. He comments that the greatest korban, sacrifice, one can bring before Hashem is to be maavir al midosav, voluntarily surrender his right (or feeling that he is right) to…

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אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן לד'

When a man among you brings an offering to Hashem. (1:2)

The Torah refers to the person who brings the korban, sacrifice/offering, as Adam, which is also the name of Adam HaRishon, to imply that, just as Adam did not bring an offering from a stolen animal (since everything belonged to him), so, too, should we not serve Hashem with ill-begotten goods. Adam HaRishon offered a bull as his korban to Hashem. This primordial bull was different from any other bull that would ever be created. Chazal (Chullin 60a) state: “Adam arose and offered up a bull whose horns appeared before its hooves, as David Hamelech writes (Tehillim 69:32): V’sitav l’Hashem…

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